Buttstock pad



A. MILLER BUTTSTOCK PAD Aug. 23, 1966 Filed Feb. 25, 1965 United States Patent 3,267,602 BUTTSTOCK PAD Arthur Miller, Costa Mesa, Calif., assignor to Armalite, Inc., Costa Mesa, Califi, a corporation of California Filed Feb. 25, 1965, Ser. No. 435,175 2 Claims. (Cl. 4274) This invention relates to a firearm buttstock pad, more particularly to a resilient pad adapted to be mounted on the butt of any rifle or shotgun where recoil is desired to be minimized.

Recent designs of firearms, particularly shotguns, have incorporated a buttpad of resilient material to cushion the recoil of firing. For wear and abrasion resistant purposes some of the buttpads have been made of a fairly heavy durometer, rubber-like material but to maintain the resilience of such a pad, a symmetrical pattern of apertures has been formed in the pad. This symmetrical pattern of holes makes the over-all pad a little more resilient for recoil absorption while maintaining a fairly rugged material for the pad from an abrasion resistance point of view.

When such a pad is applied to a shotgun, it is not enough to merely have a resilient pad for the shoulder impact because depending upon the attitude .at which the gun is held, the gun stock may be deflected in a direction to cause additional impact on the cheekbone of the person firing the gun.

It is an object of this invention to provide a buttpad for a firearm which will not only cushion the recoil impact on the shoulder of the person firing the gun, but also positively preclude any impact on the cheekbone of the person firing the gun.

It is another object of this invention to provide a resilient buttstock pad that can be formed from a rugged, abrasion-resistant material but which will readily cushion vand control the direction of shock of the stock upon recoil.

Further and other objects will become apparent from the description of the accompanying drawings in which like numbers refer to like parts.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary view showing the side elevation of a gun stock and buttpad.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary plan view of a stock and the buttstock pad in place thereon.

FIGURE 1 of the drawings shows a typical shoulder stock 1 of a firearm. Stock 1 is formed with the pistol grip portion 2 with a thumb rest 3 formed in the stock. The top of the stock 4 is generally held in a horizontal position. The cheek rest 5 is shown by dashed lines, inasmuch as it is on the far side from the stock as viewed in FIGURE 1.

The buttpad 6 is formed of a rugged, abrasion-resistant material such as the synthetic rubbers or elastomeric materials and may be adapted to be contoured to the rear portion of stock 1. Pad 6 has formed therein a pluraltiy of elongated holes 7 which may extend through pad 6 or partially through pad 6 as shown in FIGURE 2. Each hole 7 may be of a generally elongated shape to form therebetween a plurality of webs 8 that extend transversely of buttpad 6. Holes 7 and the webs 8 formed between the holes are characterized in that the holes are such that the said holes and webs 8 slant forwardly and downwardly when related to the normal direction of the gun in its position for firing.

The rear portion of the buttstock in contact with the shoulder may be formed with a plurality of projections 9 for anti-skid purposes.

Pad 6 may be formed with an indentation as shown at 10 adapted to slide over and engage a protruding portion 11 formed on the rear end of the buttstock. Such a buttpad will stretch sufiiciently to snap on and be held in place by projection 11 on the buttstock so that it can be readily removed and replace-d.

From the above described design of holes in the buttpad, it will be seen that if the recoil is represented by the vector A, point B will be, upon recoil, moved downwardly and rearwardly, to a point such as B and the result will be a downward motion of the stock, as shown at C. Part of the recoil will be absorbed by the compression of the buttpad and the downward movement of the portion of the buttpad and stock, leaving only a small portion of the recoil to impinge on the shoulder of the person firing the gun. An important effect, however, will be that the whole stock including the cheek rest, as demonstrated by point B, will move downwardly upon recoil and thereby prevent impact on the cheekbone of the person firing the gun.

While the slots for simplicity have been shown in the buttpad as quadrilateral in shape, they may be of .any shape, forming any contour of web and may extend entirely through the buttpad or partially through the 'buttpad so long as the configuration of the holes 7 and webs 8 is such as to produce a downwardly and rearwardly motion of the buttpad upon recoil when firing the gun. This will accomplish the desired effects of absorbing some of the recoil plus positively moving the cheek rest of the gun stock away from the cheekbone of the person firing the gun.

It is to be understood that certain alterations, modifications and substitutions can be made in this specification without departing from the spirit and scope of the depending claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A pad for mounting a firearm stock having a shoulder rest portion and a check rest portion, said pad being mounted on the butt of the stock, said pad having at least a portion thereof formed of resilient material and having a plurality of spaced slots formed in said resilient portion, said slots extending in a transverse direction with respect to said stock and being slanted downwardly from the rear of the stock towards the front thereof thereby forming a plurality of slanted Webs therebetween so that upon firing, the force of recoil will cause said stock to pivot about the rear portion of said webs to move said cheek rest portion downwardly.

2. The pad of claim 1 wherein said slots and webs slant at an acute angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of said stock.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 866,994 9/ 1907 Wohlwend 4274 1,156,293 10/1915 .Torgenson 4274 1,868,953 7/1932 Smith 4274 2, 320,430 6/ 1943 Hawkins 4274 BENJAMIN A. BORCHELT, Primary Examiner. 

1. A PAD FOR MOUNTING A FIREARM STOCK HAVING A SHOULDER REST PORTION AND A CHEEK REST PORTION, SAID PAD BEING MOUNTED ON THE BUTT OF THE STOCK, SAID PAD HAVING AT LEAST A PORTION THEREOF FORMED OF RESILIENT MATERIAL AND HAVING A PLURLAITY OF SPACED SLOTS FORMED IN SAID RESILIENT PORTION, SAID SLOTS EXTENDING IN A TRANSVERSE DIRECTION WITH RESPECT TO SAID STOCK AND BEING SLANTED DOWNWARDLY FORM THE REAR OF THE STOCK TOWARD THE FRONT THEREOF THEREBY FORMING A PLURALITY OF SLANTED WEBS THEREBETWEEN SO THAT UPON FIRING, THE FORCE OF RECOIL WILL CAUSE SAID STOCK TO PIVOT ABOUT THE REAR PORTION OF SAID WEBS TO MOVE SAID CHEEK REST PORTION DOWNWARDLY. 